


Pelmeni and Solyanka

by I_llbedammned



Category: Black Widow (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Russia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 11:25:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17365043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_llbedammned/pseuds/I_llbedammned
Summary: Natasha and Bucky have a group of Avengers over to their apartment for a proper Russian dinner of solyanka and pelmeni. (Essentially cabbage, pickle, and ham soup and meaty dumplings)  However there's one thing that the team can't seem to understand, what's the catch?  It's not like these two are exactly homemakers, so why are they cooking them food?





	Pelmeni and Solyanka

**Author's Note:**

  * For [coffeebean87](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeebean87/gifts).



> This work is for coffeebean87! I used the prompt Bucky and Natasha make authentic Russian food for their friends to try and tried to run with it. I hope you like it.

"You sure this is the right place?" Steve asked with a raised eyebrow as they approached the apartment in New York City. Deep in the heart of the Russian neighborhoods, the place sure didn't look like the kind of place that two assassins would have. The door was festooned with ivy and a wreath that was lit up with white lights. Wafting out of the open window was the smell of ham and vegetables simmering. 

Mirroring his suspicion, Tony looked sideways at him, "Sure is the address. You gettin' the feeling this is a trap?"

Captain America sighed as they approached the door, "Bucky's one of my best friends. He's a little changed now, but still the same person. I know it is a trap, I'm just not sure how yet."

His fist hit the door with a heavy pound and a black-haired figure opened up the door. Dressed as he was in a comfy looking black sweater and jeans Steve almost didn't recognize him, but how many other people were walking around with metal arms these days? "Steve! Tony! Glad you two could make it! Come on in!" Bucky motioned them inside.

They made their way past the living room, full of black leather furniture that was obviously Natasha's touch, and into the dining room at which Clint and Bruce were currently sitting. Clint smirked as they entered, "Great, looks like the entertainment just got here."

Natasha yelled something loudly in Russian and Bucky responded smoothly, exiting the room and leaving them all at the oak table with the poinsettias in the middle. 

"Do any of you have any idea what is going on?" Bruce asked, his eyes nervously flickering to the door and windows. The apartment was big...for a New York City apartment, but that still didn't mean he was comfortable there.

Steve shrugged, "Seems like our friends wanted to make us dinner."

"Yeah but why. It's not like we're Stepford Wives over here. If we need food, I can get a five-star chef from any country on the hour." Tony said.

"Maybe they're just trying to be nice. I can't speak for Bucky, but sometimes Natasha is..." Clint stopped as the rest of the table eyed him cooly with skeptical faces, "What? I'm just saying it is possible, not likely!"  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------  
In the kitchen Natasha was trying to fold the dough over a lump of meat, but the dough was being awfully persnickety and kept opening every time that she went to seal it. She swore loudly in Russian. How was it that she could kill fifty people with infinite grace yet this pelmeni was so torturously resisting her? Irritated she wiped her forhead with a flour stained purple sweater.

Summoned by her cursing, Bucky appeared with a grin in the doorway. "Still at battle, my dear?" he crooned in Russian. He only ever called her my dear when he spoke Russian for reasons he had yet to explain to her. When asked he would just grin and say it again.

"These pelmeni are being spiteful." She snapped back. "They're already here and already they should be in the broth but instead they keep opening on me!"

Gently he went over to her, looking over her shoulder as he stirred the solkyanka to make sure all the ham and pickles were properly mixed up. "You need more water. Like this," He put down the soup spoon and went to the sink, running water over his fingers and filling up a small bowl for her to use. Coming back, he mushed the edges down with them, reaching around her as he did so. "See, just a little more wet and everything comes together." He chuckled.

"You often have to ask for things to be more wet for you?" She jibed.

"With you? Never!" He responded, switching from helping her to wrapping his arms around her as she finished the rest of the pelmeni. 

Natasha sighed, relaxing back into the warmth of his body for just a brief moment. "I've made them a hundred times. I shouldn't be so worked up about it. I just- I want everything to be perfect tonight, you know?"

"Yeah, I know. Lotta pressure riding on tonight on my shoulders too. But we'll get through it. I mean these are our friends, not Ultron." He buried his face a little in her hair, relishing it even though it now smelled of dumplings and pickles rather than any of her fragrant perfumes. It was still nice though; it almost made him feel like they could be a normal couple rather than people who two days ago had to stop yet another psychopath from wrecking New York.

She laughed, "I don't know. We kicked Ultron's ass with our friends. Think our friends might be more terrifying."

"At least Banner will feel really bad about it later if he goes berserk." He gave a slightly annoyed look towards her, as he backed up and started to pour solyanka into chipped ceramic bowls on a wooden tray. "I still don't know why you had to invite him."

She gave a non-committal shrug, "I know you don't like him, but he has bailed me out of a lot of situations before. If we're asking for protection, I want him on our side."   
He bit his lips rather than argue with her. Bruce had come up before and he had decided that it wasn't worth the headache of arguing with her. Besides, if what they were to do was to be successful then they would need as many people on their side as possible.

Switching to a grin Nat grabbed a bottle of vodka and the tray of soup, "I think we've left them alone long enough. The suspense must be killing them. Grab the pelmeni when they are done. I'm going to give them samples of the national drink of Russia."  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------  
"I still think that if they had a superweapon they'd just use it rather than summoning us here to kill us. That's a little too Boris and Natasha for them." Clint laughed, responding to some sort of conversation about what the real purpose of the meeting was before he saw Natasha approach, "Speak of the Devil and lo she appears!"

Helpfully she wiggled the bottle of vodka, "Drinks anyone?" She put down the tray and began to distribute soup as they all weighed whether or not the vodka was actually poison.

"I'll just take a tea, thanks." Steve said politely.

"What's the matter, boy scout, hearkening back to the Prohibition? Afraid mom will get mad at you?" Tony fired back at him.

"Nah. Can't even get drunk anymore. Ruins the fun of it." Steve smirked.

"It's not like anyone drinks vodka for its taste." Clint added helpfully, stirring at the cabbage and potatoes, searching for any bits of finger that were in the soup. Surely the trap was that they were actually feeding them people.

"I'll take a tea too. Green if you have it." Bruce raised a finger to second the motion, "Alcohol makes you lose control and I-"

"It's just a shot. Symbollically, just take it."Natasha said, heedless of their protests, "Besides, I know you drink Bruce. We've drank enough beer in dive bars together."

"Yeah, but that was different." He paused, unable to think of what was different other than the fact that Natasha wasn't the one serving him in a dive bar. All the same, if she was going to give them a Soviet drug he supposed she could have done so a hundred times before.

Bucky appeared with another pot, this one full of dumplings, and two mugs of tea, "Hey, don't take the drink without me." Eagerly and with an overly exaggerated grin he poured himself a shot before sliding next to his best friend. Steve recognized the look and knew his friend was loving the tense situation they had put them in. 

Natasha raised a glass, "To new beginnings, Za Zdarovje!"

She took the shot quickly, as did Bucky followed by Clint and Tony. Steve bitterly swallowed it, wincing at the acrid taste and Bruce took a single sip before sliding himself over the tea in the dark blue mug and giving Steve the one in the purple mug.

"So I guess we just dig in?" Clint asked and Natasha nodded, her eyes watching them carefully. 

He took a spoonful and nodded his appreciation before reaching over and adding a few dumplings in. That was enough to convince everybody that it was okay. In quick succession everybody started digging in to the savory meal, with conversation mostly at a minimum as food was consumed.

"I didn't know you could cook, Nat." Steve commented, remembering their times traveling. Then again, he retroactively thought, they didn't really have time to eat proper meals most of the time.

"She can't. I did most of the work." Bucky responded, earning him a well-deserved glare which he laughed off.

"Glad to see you've moved on from trying to convince the world that oyster sandwiches are actually edible." Steve said dryly, earning a laugh from Natasha.

"They're savory and spicy. I still don't know why they didn't catch on." His friend stuck his stubbled chin out stubbornly and for a second he looked like old Bucky with all the years and pain washed away.

"As pleased as I am to eat pickles and cabbage in an apartment in the middle of nowhere, why did you guys call us here? I mean really?" Tony asked, flicking through a few lost messages on his phone from contractors.

Nat breathed out heavily, now feeling the pressure on her and met eyes with Bucky. "First off, these are national treasures of Russia not just pickles and cabbage." She raised a finger to correct Tony, "Second off, there may be a favor we have to ask and it's kind of big."

"What kind of favor?" Clint asked, his voice serious. This wouldn't be the first time Nat had asked him to kill someone for her, but he liked to be in on the plan before he did so.  
"So you guys know, more or less, about how I was raised. You know, Red Room and Russian conditioning and all that?" Nat added and everyone gave their assent,"Well, obviously that means I'm not the only one."

"I thought we shut down that program years ago." Steve's brow furrowed in concern.

"We did, that time. Turns out they made more. I found the plans the last time I did a raid on a Russian base." Bucky's face looked dark. The years of wear and tear and pain showed in every line of his face and he lived through a memory he would rather have forgotten.

"So what, you want us to come in with guns blazing and fix the problem? That's not really something you needed to call us all the way here for." Tony added, now putting down his phone and giving them his full attention.

Natasha shook her head, "No. We took care of the people making it. But the thing is, there's a lot of kids left now without anybody. Without someone to take care of them, we'll have a whole new spate of Black Widows and Winter Soldiers all over the world at the mercy of whoever bids the highest."

"No." Bruce looked from her to Bucky in disbelief, "No, you can't be asking us to adopt all these little children. Not in the place we are at. Not with how often we get attacked."

With a look of surrender Natasha nodded, "Yeah, it kind of is. And we need your help to do it."

"Listen I have no issue with you and your new boyfriend adopting kids, but why does that involve us?" Clint tried to think of the last time he played with his own kids and felt guilty about how often he was called away. How could he take care of those kids when he couldn't even watch after his own?

"We'll need to keep them somewhere. We were thinking Avenger's Tower." Bucky started, bracing himself for the rebuttal.

"No way. I'm not running an orphanage." Tony started.

"Won't they get attacked?" Bruce envisioned little children's bodies as the Tower was broken into yet again and shuddered.

"Please. I don't ask that much from you guys. If you need my help, I'm there for you. Now I'm asking for your help on this." Her voice lowered as she struggled to find words for why this was important to her that didn't also give her away.,"I just can't let someone else be made into a weapon. Not when we can do something about it. I'll train them, but I can't be there all of the time."

"All we need is a little protection. We'll do the rest. These kids are ten to twelve, for the most part they can be left alone and I know there are plenty of rooms." There would also be a lot of deprogramming to do and as someone who lived through it, Bucky knew he was best qualified to deal with those....identity issues.

Steve stood up,"I'll help. These kids deserve a chance as much as the rest of us. I don't know what they would have been used for or what they have gone through, but I know you two do. I'll trust your judgment on this. If you say you can handle the training, I'll gladly punch a few terrorists in the face if they try to touch these kids. I'm not about to let them get killed down the line by people like us after they get twisted in the wrong way."

The room sat in silence, letting the power of Steve's voice and the subsequent guilt at being reminded that they would be leaving children to the whims of some villains set in.

"Aw, what the hell. Can't get any worse for us, right?" Hawkeye seconded.

Tony shrugged, trying to look diffident, "Maybe with some kids around Pepper will stop trying to convince me to have some of our own. If we get lucky maybe one of them will end up being good with computers and I won't need to hire interns anymore."

Bruce eyed them carefully, "I can't say no now. Do you really think I'm going to be the guy that tells everyone that a group of kids should rot?" He looked unhappy about his decision, but stuck to it.

As the head of the table, the Black Widow heaved a sigh of relief, "Thank you everyone. Really."

Bucky grinned, "Told you making solyanka would butter them up properly."

"You're right. Clearly it was just the food." Natasha laughed.


End file.
